Introduction and study of Seismic Performance of Tihn-Walled Hollow Steel Column Fabricated of Corrugated Plates

Thin-walled hollow steel columns, either circular or box shaped, are commonly used as piers in bridges. Recent earthquakes, e.g. Hyogoken-Nanbu or Kobe 1995, on the other hand have shown that these columns are vulnerable to damage when subjected to earthquake loading. This paper presents a new innovative thin-walled hollow steel column fabricated of corrugated plates, “thin-walled steel columns with corrugated section”, primarily to be used as piers in bridges and other structures as an alternative to circular or box thin-walled steel columns. Compared with the traditional steel columns, this new innovative thin-walled steel column might improve buckling behavior under combined axial and flexural loading, caused by earthquake excitations. For investigating the seismic performance of this new innovative thin-walled steel column and comparison of it with traditional thin-walled steel column, a series of parametric 3D-finite element analyses have been executed. The analyses results have shown that thin-walled steel columns with corrugated section can undergo large plastic deformations without significant, strength reduction, hence dissipate energy under cyclic loading.